Exclusive brokers. These can be shipbrokers that negotiate charters only for one shipowner or one charterer.
It can also mean shipbrokers that specialise in a restricted category of vessel, such as oil tankers; or in a restricted category of shipbroking, such as sale and purchase of passenger ships. The broker can also work exclusively with regard to the place in which he offers his broking services, such as a broker offering services exclusive to Hong Kong.
If exclusive brokers are exclusive to only one client, “direct brokers” could work over a wider area. For example, brokers in many chartering centres could offer their services to one shipowner or charterer. A chain of brokers can become involved in many centres and even within one chartering centre, each broker being a “competitive broker”, competing one with another for the business and possibly collaborating, the final broker fixing the ship “covering” the others in the commission charged.
